The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-03-08
A METEMPsYCHOL0GIOAL PERIL.
Sunerings of n Man with n Rnbbip'
Eye in His Head.

sufrerings of n Man with Rabbipi
Eye I'm His Head.
II is probable that no greater strok,
of fortune could have befallen Mr.
Charles A. Williams, of Minneapolis
than the recent failure of surgeon il
this city to insert rabbits eye in hi
head and make it grow there. Mr..
Williams lost one of his own eyes whcI
he was only Is years old, and having {
prejudice against glass eyes on account
of their unhappy habit of trying to
look around corners and of gazing
heavenward when the natural eye is
bent upon the ground, his soul was
filled with hope when he learned that {;
New York ophthalmist was satisfied
that he could transplant rabbits eye
to the human head, and induce ii to
take root and grow. He came to this
city, and large rabbit with lustrous
hazel eyes was selected for the victim.
Mr.. Williams was informed that there
was no hope of his being able to sec
with the rabbits eye, but that it would
hav' wore natural appearance thar
a gl;l and would conduct itself in
harm With his other organ OF
visiolW .. is only fair TO presume, how.
ever, that this was merely little sub.
terfuge on the part of the surgeon to
induce his patient to submit to the
operation, for if the optic nerve had
taken root and grown, and the eye had
lived and hourished, there is every rea-
son to believe that it would have con.
tinued to see as well from under Mr..
Williams eyelashes as from the rab
bits.
Still it would have been only n rab
bits eye after all, and whatever it was
would have been seen from rabbit
standpoint Mr.. Williams must grad
ually have acquired the habits aud
mode of thought of rabbit, at least
on that side of his body most affected
by the new eye, and this unnatural
blending of human nature with rabbit
nature would have been far more in.
convenient than if he had had two rab-
bits eyes, and had thus been wholly
metempsychosed. If, for instance,
with this rabbit eye controlling him on
one side and the man nature on the
other, he had gone hunting and en-
countered fox, the man part of him
would have been for shooting the fox,
and the rabbit instinct would have i'm
PEELED him to quit the neighborhood us
rapidly and unostentatiously as posi-
BILE. He would thus have been torn
with conflicting emotions, and a few
such experiences must have undermined
his health and broken him down physi-
cally and mentally.
How would he have conducted him
self when walking through his own
garden? Would the tender green let
tuce and the beautiful red-veined beet
tops most have delighted the eye of the
man side or tickled the dainty palate
of the rabbit side? But these things
would have been trivial compared with
his inevitable feelings had hunger
driven him 10 seek u restaurant, and
had he there found dead and dressed
rabbit hanging by the heels in the
window. The man side would have
urged him to go in and eat, and the
rabbit side would have torn him away
with loathing and disgust. Such trials
must in time worn out his manly will
force, and left the rabbit side in the
ascendant, in which case he would have
been liable at any moment to make in
cursions upon the Minneapolis lawns,
hopping about on all-fours over the
rich green grass, taking here a nibble
and there nibble, till at length his
very appearance might have changed
with his instincts, his ears elongated
and stood upright, and the unhappy
man have fallen victim at last to some
street dog. This great peril Mr.. Will
liams has escaped by the failure of the
rabbits eye.-NeD York Times